Search Results

Join Gary Harris for a Proper Football Live Special event on Thursday 16th Feb at 6 pm where he will be interviewing the co-authors of the new soon-to-be-released book ‘Angels With Dirty Faces' by Gary 'Boatsy’ Clarke and Paul Lowe. The book is about the two of them growing up in Nottingham and follows their journeys from a tough background and the trials and tribulations of following their beloved Nottingham Forest to now playing an important role in the success of nonleague club Carlton Town and giving back to the local community. The book which has testimonials from Talksports Johney Owen and contributions from Carlton Town Chairman Mick Garton will officially be launched at the Nottinghamshire club on Sunday 19th February at 2 pm with any welcome to come along. ⚽👊🏻 Make sure to tune in and get involved with your comments and views. Watch on our Facebook page or our YouTube channel here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://youtube.com/channel/UCtr7oTe3DH-Ymo4uxM6xULA Or Twitter here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://twitter.com/ProperFootball8?t=voFqeo4B83kwlQKtJAx5gA&s=09 Email us @ getinvolved@properfootball.co.uk Full details here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://fb.me/e/4UMMp8tUB

Another transfer window has come and gone and another obscene amount of money has been spent. A total of £815m was spent in the January window and if you add that to the summer window of £1.9bn it brings the total transfer figure to an astronomical amount of £2.715bn! A big chunk of that money will have gone out of our game to line the pockets of the agents, clubs and players and out of the UK in some instances. But, how much of it will go back to the grassroots clubs? The place where many of the players who now reap the rewards begun their journey, the place where they were helped to develop by coaches working for a pittance or just giving up their free time. Absolutely nothing! Instead, grassroots clubs are struggling due to rising prices on top of the local councils putting pitch fees up, sponsors have dried up and cash reserves are lower than ever and parents are even struggling to pay the subs in this cost-of-living crisis The situation is getting worse all the time and it absolutely stinks that those sitting at the top of the pyramid are lining their pockets and not giving a second thought to the level of the game who ultimately are the beginning of the supply chain. Why can't there be a levy on these transfers? Even just 1% would go a long way to help out! They are biting off the hand that feeds them and we hope their complete disregard for the heart and soul of football comes back to bite them! SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE!

What a landmark day for the fans of beleaguered Scunthorpe United. The Lincolnshire club who were on the verge of going out of existence with an HMRC winding-up order hanging over them along with the news from earlier in the week of an interested consortium pulling out of a potential takeover, things were looking very bleak, adding to the fact they were sitting rock bottom of the National League and without an away win for 25 months the trip to Halifax Town on Wednesday evening could not have filled the supporters with any optimism. [Recent protest at Glandford Park] But whilst the team bus was en route to The Shay news broke that the club had been taken over by former Ilkeston Town owner David Hilton and that he had been appointed as the new chairman and owner of Scunthorpe United with immediate effect. Buoyed by the good news, the Iron promptly went and won 1-0 to give them their first victory on the road since 26 December 2021. [Iron supporters celebrate away victory] The victory moved the Lincolnshire side, who were relegated from the EFL after 72 years last season, off the foot of the table and to within five points of safety. New owner David Hilton said in a statement on the club's website: "The first job I've got to do over the next 48 hours is settle the winding-up petition with the HMRC, which will help us get out of the transfer embargo we're under, so we can bring some bodies in and strengthen the squad. "Any remaining debts will be eradicated in due course and we'll be looking to put the football club on a sustainable model as quickly as possible while remaining competitive in whichever division we're in. "I can also add, if there is to be any development in and around Glanford Park, it will be purely for the benefit of the football club and to help it move forward, not for personal gain. [David Hilton] "It's all been done very quickly, so there's a lot I need to digest but I fully intend to interact with supporters. I just need a little bit of time for the dust to settle so I can understand the business fully. "I would like to thank everybody for the support that's been shown to me since the news started to come out, and I'm proud to be your chairman. I will give my all to help get this club back where it belongs." David Hilton's takeover of the club has ended Peter Swann's 10-year spell as owner of the Glanford Park side. [Peter Swann] Swann had been looking to sell the club for some time and anger at his ownership saw some fans invade the pitch during the home defeat by Woking earlier this month. Former Hartlepool and Barnet defender Nelson has won two and drawn one of his eight games in charge and is hopeful he has done enough to get the job permanently. "I haven't spoken to anyone yet. I was solely focused on the football side of it," [what it meant to Michael Nelson and staff after the final whistle] "I think I have developed the team and the group as individuals. Yes, I would like the job permanently but it is not my decision at the end of the day." Victory at home to Bromley on Saturday would help further Nelson's cause and also give Scunthorpe successive league wins for the first time in almost two years. We wish Scunthorpe United and their supporters all the best and hope for a stable future ahead!

One of the main reasons we started Proper Football was to give a platform for fans who follow teams from all levels of the game to have a say and give their opinions, so if you would like to write a blog, an opinion piece or an article on a football matter be it non-league or about the wider game and have it published on our website then please feel free to get in touch with us on one of our social media platforms or send us an email to getinvolved@properfootball.co.uk Have your say! 👊🏻⚽

Today proper football caught up with gav for a chinwag about casuals, football. & Music. Thanks for joining us at Proper Football. Let's start with you telling us a bit about yourself. It's a pleasure, names Gav, aka the Casual Sniper, Dad, Grandad, ineligible bachelor (laughs) sober alcoholic who's loving life again without the booze. Who's your team and how did you first start supporting them? Pompey, basically it became the thing to do & place to be seen as a teenager. When and why did you first get into Casual culture? Same time as I got hooked on Pompey, you had to look half decent Ya know!! In your opinion who/where did casual start? No comment really, it's still alive and kicking, that's all that matters. Favourite piece of terrace attire? Lois cords. Least favourite trend you've witnessed on the terraces? Can't say there was one back in the day, now it's that whole wearing all black thing. Is there anything you would love to own but just can't get your hands on it. Yeah, well not exactly own but a woman who loves the whole casual scene.... a man can dream. There's a lot of newer independent clothing labels popping up all the time. Anything that struck you that stands out from the rest? Think it would be unfair to pinpoint one, complete kudos to all those who truly are "keeping it casual". I see you're into your Scooters. Did you ever consider yourself a Mod? Nope, never, always a casual. Britain has seen many subcultures come and go, in your opinion what is it about the Casual movement that keeps it still going? I think with the casual scene there's no steadfast rules, no uniform, you're the casual you want to be. In our opinion the music has always been an important part of Terrace Culture. What would be your favourite tunes for a match day? Back in the day in the "Barn" at Pompey it was always the Jam belting out. Do you have a favourite album/single of all time? The Liberty of Norton Folgate, love a bit of old London. Single. Ian Browns El Mundo Pequeno, Proper chill out tune. Favourite band/artist? Ian Brown (he hates the establishment just like me) Any bands/artist that you feel are part of Terrace Culture? Open to each Casuals interpretation. Any up-and-coming bands you can recommend? Too busy listening to my old stuff. Did you get into the dance music scene in the late 80's/ early 90's? Yup, 89 was the best summer of my life, was basically nocturnal & raved my arse off. That era of illegal raves will never be seen again... legendary times for all those who luckily lived it. On to a bit about the football... sum up your team's season so far. Pompey as a team to follow and I parted years ago, long story. I'm still Pompey, it's in my blood but the club itself has become timid compared to the great terrace days of old, Ruined! Do you still attend games regularly? Yes, but not Pompey. Which club traditionally are your biggest rivals? Scummers A lot of fans have been drawn towards lower/non-league football recently. Anyone else you follow? AFC Portchester, I'm addicted to the old school terrace experience. Any views on this year's World Cup in Qatar? I've watched it and enjoyed it, but it didn't have that world cup summer buzz for me. Sum up Modern football in one sentence. EATING ITSELF. Follow Gav on Instagram here https://instagram.com/thecasualsniper_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Scunthorpe United supporters invaded the pitch on 70 minutes at yesterday's National League game against Woking to protest about the dire situation at the club. Scunthorpe United were in the championship in 2010 and as recently as 2017 were on the verge of gaining promotion back to the 2nd tier. Their demise since then sees them sit rock bottom of the 5th tier and on the brink of going into administration and possible liquidation after being served a winding up petition by the HMRC last week. The Irons have been losing money for the last decade believed to be in the region of £27m and current owner Peter Swan is in the process of suing bookmakers after running up millions of pounds of debts and has put the club up for sale. There are interested consortiums but as of yet no deal has been agreed and any hope of a takeover have stalled. The clock is ticking faster than ever before and time is running out for the Lincolnshire club who were formed in 1899, 124 year's ago, we can only hope a solution is found and soon before we lose another part of our history.

Hereford FC are the latest team to join the growing trend of community-owned football clubs after The Bulls supporters secured 50.1% ownership of the National League North side. Hereford United were originally founded in 1924, but were sadly wound-up in the High Court with debts around £1.3million in 2014 and owing HMRC £100,000 in unpaid tax. The Whites had been in financial difficulty since they were relegated from the Football League in 2012 and were then demoted two divisions (from Conference Premier to Southern League Premier) without kicking a ball because the new owners declined to put up a £350,000 bond. A new phoenix club was set up in 2015 by Hereford supporters and local benefactors and Hereford FC was formed, there were five Benefactors who each paid in £50,000 in return for shares in the Club. Individual Supporters collectively paid £39,000 in return for shares in the Club and the Hereford Supporters Trust was granted the opportunity to match these 289,000 shares, over time, by progressive fundraising from ‘rank and file’ supporters. The target of £289,000 was hoped to be reached by May this year but amazingly the magic number was reached by November 2022! The funds were moved across before Christmas and the £9,000 cheque which enabled them to hit the target was presented at their recent game against fellow community-owned club Scarborough Athletic. Hereford United Supporters’ Trust chairman Richard Tomkins said: “This is an emotional moment." “Some people believed that supporters didn’t have the drive to amass the £289,000 required to match the club’s foundation investment. How wrong can they be!” The following exert is taking from the Hereford United Supporters Trust (HUST) and sums up the issues for us football fans up and down the country perfectly. Football fans, have for years, flocked to watch their chosen team, often in the thousands and in their eyes it is ‘their club’ and it “belongs” to them. However, in the eyes of the Law, it is a remarkably different matter. Football Clubs are categorised as “Companies” and under Company Law, the Company (Club) is, in fact, owned by its Shareholders. That is to say, whosoever owns more than 50% of the shares owns the Club. In these circumstances, Owners can, for example: Opt to move the ground. Change the Club’s colours. Move the team to a new league. Fans, who do not have a say, can do nothing about any of these decisions! As we have all seen played out in the media, select Premier Club Owners wanted to start a European Super League. Fans strongly protested! Had there not been a strong lobby from Government and Football Governing Bodies, the fans’ protest, would, again, have meant nothing! HUST website; https://www.hust.org.uk/ Hereford FC have now joined the list of the other 46 community-owned clubs. 1874 Northwich 1876 Bangor AFC Liverpool AFC Rushden and Diamonds AFC Wimbledon Bamber Bridge Banbury United Basingstoke Town Bath City Bury AFC Camden and Islington United Chester Chesterfield City of Liverpool FC Clapton Congleton Town Darlington Dorchester Town Dunstable Town Enfield Town Exeter City FC United of Manchester Fisher FC Grays Athletic Hendon Hinckley AFC Hull United Hyde United Kempston Rovers Lewes Litherland REMYCA Merthyr Town Montpelier Villa Newark Town Newport County Newport (IOW) Northwich Victoria Peacehaven & Telscombe Prescot Cables Runcorn Linnets Saffron Walden Town Scarborough Athletic Tonbridge Angels Ton Pentre Worcester City Wythenshawe Amateurs All of which can be found on the map below taken from the Football Supporters Association (FSA) website. The FSA is the national, democratic, representative body for football supporters in England and Wales. They are the leading advocates for supporter ownership, better fan engagement, cheaper ticket prices, the choice to stand at the match, protecting fan rights, good governance, diversity, and all types of supporter empowerment. As the national organisation they have regular contact with the Premier League, the EFL, National League, and the FA, as well as a whole host of other organisations within football such as the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). As a secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Football Supporters Group they have strengthened the voice of fans within Parliament in recent years. Their casework helps hundreds of fans every year who feel they’ve been poorly treated by their clubs, stewards, or police and they give those fans a voice, the best possible advice, and even legal support where necessary. You can check out their website here; https://thefsa.org.u It must be said that community-owned clubs will still face trials and tribulations and times of financial difficulty but it takes away the threat of unscrupulous owners with financial agendas. In an ideal world it would be great to see all our football clubs community-owned with a 50.1% majority, but we are sadly a million miles away from that, but we can still dream and strive for it to happen one day.

Everton's board of directors have been instructed not to attend today's Premier League game with Southampton due to a "real and credible threat to their safety and security", the club has said. Fans are understood to be planning a protest at Goodison Park in the wake of last week's embarrassing 4-1 home defeat to Brighton. The fans have planned An Everton fans' group has given an update on plans to stage a protest at this weekend’s game against Southampton. Organisers are calling on Blues to support their campaign against how the club is run and 'sit-in' after the game against Nathan Jones’ side at Goodison Park. The protest is being led by the NSNOW group, formerly known as the 27 Campaign, who were one of several groups behind an open letter to Everton owner Farhad Moshiri last week, asking for him to make 'sweeping changes' to the club’s board. The club said chairman Bill Kenwright, chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale, chief finance and strategy officer Grant Ingles and non-executive director Graeme Sharp will "reluctantly" stay away on the advice of security advisors. In a statement, Everton called the decision "unprecedented" and said it was "a profoundly sad day" for the club. The club said: "The board members received the instruction following malicious and unacceptably threatening correspondence received by the club and increasing incidents of anti-social behaviour - including targeted physical aggression - at recent home matches. "This is an unprecedented decision for Everton Football Club - never before has our entire board of directors been ordered not to attend a match on safety grounds. It is a profoundly sad day for Everton and Evertonians." A statement from a security and safety advisor released by the club said: "Following a thorough risk assessment, and in response to tangible threats received by the Club and intelligence we have gathered, the Club's Board members have been told they must not attend today's fixture."

At Proper Football we are always interested in you, the fan, and your opinions and thoughts about your club and football in general, so, if you would like to give your views on your teams season so far please take part in our mid-season questionnaire. All replies will be published here on our website and we will follow up with another questionnaire at the end of the season.

Adidas and Arsenal have launched the next chapter of their No More Red campaign, an initiative first launched in January 2022 to support the long-standing work being done by Arsenal in the Community to help keep young people safe from knife crime and youth violence. Arsenal will wear the all-white kit at tonight's game against Oxford United in the 3rd of the FA Cup. Although the number of teenagers killed as a result of violent youth crime dropped significantly in 2022 in comparison to 2021, there were 11,502 knife offenses recorded in London between January 2022 and November 2022, an increase compared with the corresponding period in 2021. Both ourselves and Adidas remain steadfast in our long-term commitment to create safe spaces for young people to play sport in the capital, provide better access to trusted role models, and shine a light on talented individuals who are making a positive difference in their community. NO MORE RED IN 2023 Inspired by the impassioned response to last year’s launch, this year we are expanding No More Red; inviting members of the public to be part of the campaign by volunteering with one of our charity partners: Arsenal in the Community The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation Steel Warriors Don’t Stab Your Future Box Up Crime Copenhagen Youth Project St Giles Trust Abianda Octopus Community Network The Ben Kinsella Trust Each person who volunteers with one of the above as part of the scheme can receive their own No More Red shirts and will be invited to watch us play at Emirates Stadium. Each charity and organisation have 10 limited edition shirts to give volunteers, who each must donate their time to be eligible. Full details relating to how each participating charity is offering the shirts can be found on their respective websites, and Arsenal.com/NoMoreRed.

The use of the dark arts in football is nothing new and has been in the game for many years, gaining that little edge over your opponent to win a game is part and parcel of football and even more so now what with the money and prizes at stake in the modern-day game, but it doesn't make it right and if anything is making many of us turn our backs on top-level football. One of the most frustrating things for fans is seeing players feigning injury to get their opponent sent off, or falling over with the slightest bit of contact to win a freekick or penalty or just to run the clock down at the end of a game, but let's be honest about it, do we complain when our players do it? Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid are probably one of the finest modern-day examples, albeit some admire them for it, it's fair to say the majority think they are a disgrace to football and took great pleasure when Manchester City's Phil Foden beat them at their own game! The topic of time wasting was highlighted at the recent Arsenal v Newcastle game when the ball was in play for just 51min 23sec, 4 minutes less than the Premier League average for the season, this statistic has brought calls for a stopwatch to be introduced like there is in rugby or for the referee to add on more time as we saw in the recent World Cup which we think is fair to say actually worked. Let's face it, we pay a lot of money to go to a game so it's only right we get to watch the ball in play, one of the best-ever rule changes was outlawing the back pass some 30 years ago, it not only stopped the monotonous time wasting but sped the game up and created a more exciting spectacle for the fans, this brought about the art of taking the ball to the opposition's corner and killing a few seconds which requires skill and body strength which is a big part of football. Dissent towards the officials is also a form of time-wasting. It's bad enough seeing players surround the ref and getting in his face (something that was meant to be cracked down on but has it?) for every free kick he gives or doesn't give, but now the managers are getting in the 4th official's face whilst spending more time outside their technical areas than in them where they should be, this usually gets the ref to trot over and kill even more time. The video below shows a referee taking no backchat off the players (ok it's a bit OTT 😂) but I bet they didn't question him again! The biggest change in top-flight football in recent years has been the introduction of VAR, but what has it achieved? It definitely hasn't sped the game up in fact it's done the opposite, it doesn't even get every decision right, and it hasn't stopped players from diving and feigning injury either, all it's done is make the game experience for fans less enjoyable, yes, the way it has been implemented is very questionable and needs work but modern technology doesn't have to be the way forward and it's only available to the elite level anyway! what is needed is more robust rules and sanctions against the players and managers who continue to berate the officials, it's no coincidence that at the grassroots level including youth games, there has been a big increase in abuse and attacks on referees and people wonder why there is a shortage of officials. Young kids watch their idols on TV and you see their actions transpired onto park football pitches all around the country. Players and managers in the professional game need to lead by example and the governing bodies need to grow some minerals and implement stronger rules.